The headline is correct, yesterday evening Microsoft confirmed that a Kinect-less Xbox One was on it’s way, and even sooner than what we were thinking. In fact the new SKU releases this June, and gamers can get their hands on the controller only console on June 9, 2014 for a retail price equal to that of the casual Playstation 4 SKU which is $399. Microsoft has made a correct decision in regards to giving those who are on hold over the Xbox One a right to choose between using Kinect and not having it forced upon them, but is it too late?

After a year of frustration and anger from some gamers who have undoubtedly moved on to other consoles, does this new SKU give Microsoft the opportunity to be a threat to the Playstation 4 again? Or at the very least on par with the console as far as sales. It’s kind of ridiculous that it took them this long to make an announcement, and given the fact that they were adamant in suggesting that Kinect would not be removed from the Xbox One, even continuing emphasize the thought as far back as this February it makes them look really silly.

Are they just ignoring the majority of the gaming audiences? According to Major Nelson 80% of Xbox owners use Kinect, if these numbers are true, that doesn’t exactly mean that everyone who owns a Kinect is enjoying it’s use. The original Kinect was practically a disaster and most of the games that were Kinect only didn’t even work half of the time. Despite this Microsoft tried extremely hard to push it to both the casual gaming audiences and the more loyal gamers. Some Xbox One users have cited the same issues with the Kinect 2, though it does seem to be a good upgrade from the original version. However, where Microsoft went wrong was again forcing Kinect on it’s consumers who bought the Xbox One.

Microsoft had obviously seen some serious issues with the sales between Xbox One and Playstation 4, maybe their research team found somethings about consumer thoughts on Kinect these last few months that they didn’t like? To think this was simply due to fan feedback is blind loyalism, let’s not forget they backtracked on their extremely high stance on DRM due to outrage more than just hearing consumer concerns. And after months of price cuts from certain retailers, we finally get an official SKU that’s on the same level of the Playstation 4 in terms of retail price. These next few months will be interesting for Sony, Microsoft, and gamers. And with E3 on the way and Microsoft being 100% focused on IPs they have major potential to turn the console racer around this year. It’s all in the hands of Microsoft’s upcoming exclusives at this point. Here’s hoping both Sony and Microsoft are finally able to give each other the competition necessary, because in the end it’s us gamers who’ll come out on top.